Take Genesis 22, for example. If I hear this in the ‘it’s all about you’ kind of way— “Abraham was asked to give up Isaac, and if I approach that reading thinking, Genesis 22 is about what God is asking me to give up, just like he asked Abraham to give up his son, then I have to give something up. That’s the primary teaching.”
But if the primary teaching of Scripture is about Christ and his suffering (see Luke 24:25-27, 1 Peter 1:10-11 cf. Matthew 16:21) then that’s where I go first. I go first to the fact that God the Father gave up his one and only Son, that the Son suffered as Isaac would have suffered had he been sacrificed. And unlike Isaac, the knife was not withdrawn from Abraham; the knife was plunged into Christ.
But then, once I’ve seen that it’s all about Christ—and once I’ve seen that it’s about his suffering—then I can put myself in the same shoes as Abraham. I can know that I, too, just like Abraham, am saved by a Father who’s given up his one and only Son. And if the Father was willing to give up his one and only Son, then we, just like Abraham, are willing to give up all things for him. So, Abraham was willing to give up Isaac; we are willing to give up all things for him: children, houses, family, money, and time—whatever it may be. But I’m not doing that primarily because the Bible is about me, but because the Bible is about Christ and his suffering.
This brings us to Matthew 21 (Palm Sunday). As I see the Lord Jesus planning the events of his life—planning Palm Sunday according to the prophecy of Zechariah—the primary teaching for me is not to do with me picking up the Scriptures like Jesus did and thinking, “Right, what do I need to do? What’s God telling me to do?” No, first and foremost, it’s done. It’s finished. Christ has fulfilled Scripture; he’s done it. I don’t need to feel pressured to fulfil Scripture because Christ has done it. The weight is off me, the burden is lifted. He’s done it all.
Because of Christ and his suffering, I’m willing to obey Peter who in the second chapter of his first letter, urges us to live as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against our souls, to live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse us of doing wrong, they may see our good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. And that no longer becomes a command I want to obey in order to impress God or even in order to fulfil what God’s said—it’s all fulfilled, Christ has done it—but I want to live in that way because he’s done it for me.
Peter summarises it well when he says, “Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.” That’s the paradox: I am free; Christ has done it. I’m free from the burden of the law, and now I live as God’s slave. So (1 Peter 2) I show proper respect to everyone. I love the family of believers. I fear God. I honour the emperor. I submit myself to my boss at work, even when he’s harsh. but that’s because Christ suffered for me, and that’s what Scripture is all about, so then I have the privilege of also seeing him as an example, that I may follow in his steps.
But I never forget that he himself bore my sins in his body on the cross, and I never forget why he did that: so that I might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds, I have been healed. But now that I’ve returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of my soul, I live for him.
